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Proposition 8 Begins Journey Through Federal Courts


Proposition 8 Begins Journey Through Federal Courts
Yesterday in San Francisco, Chief Judge Vaughan Walker of the U.S. Federal District Court held a case management hearing in the case of Perry v Schwarzenegger. This lawsuit was filed against Proposition 8, the people’s initiative passed in November 2008, which placed the definition of marriage as only between a man and a woman into the Constitution of the State of California.
The plaintiffs in the case are two same-sex couples who claim that the state’s amendment protecting traditional marriage’s definition conflicts with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which provides equal protection to all. Two well-known attorneys, Theodore Olson and David Boies, who battled against each other in the Bush-Gore election controversy, have joined forces to argue on behalf of the plaintiffs.
The Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund has been granted “intervenor status” to defend the proponents of Proposition 8 and ultimately the majority vote of the people of California. Although it is the duty of the California Attorney General and the state’s governor to defend the California Constitution, both AG Jerry Brown and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will likely offer a tepid argument against Prop 8.
In the hearing, Judge Walker first heard arguments by additional groups seeking to intervene on the side of plaintiffs or defendants. Those groups included the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, and the Campaign for California Families. Judge Walker denied all of these groups’ arguments for special circumstances to intervene, stating that the established legal parties in the case already represented these groups’ issues.
However, Judge Walker did grant intervenor status to one additional party, the City and County of San Francisco, which claimed that the interests of “government” were not yet represented. In their argument before the judge yesterday, the attorneys for San Francisco argued that if traditional marriage remained in the state’s constitution and same-sex marriage remained unlawful, the homosexual population would not be viewed as “normal.”
Judge Walker continues to advance an expeditious timeline for a trial of the facts, recognizing that a case of this magnitude will “touch down” only briefly in his court as it proceeds to higher federal courts. The “discovery” of facts is set to close by November 30 of this year, with a trial set to begin on January 11, 2010.
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